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Healey Builds Momentum in Her Campaign for Ag

Charlestown resident Maura Healey had another strong week in her campaign for the Democratic nomination for attorney general.

Healey turned in an impressive performance in a candidates’ debate with Warren Tolman on the Channel 5 show, “On The Record” Sunday morning. The debate came on the heels of a feature story in Friday’s Boston Globe about the attorney’s general race in which it was reported that Healey was leading by two points in a poll on the race.

Healey also drew a large crowd to a reception at a home in Chelsea Monday night.

Healey has been effective in getting her message out to voters about her accomplishments as assistant attorney general and division chief in Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office. She worked in the Attorney General’s Office from 2007 until 2013 when she announced her candidacy for attorney general.

Healey’s academic credentials and basketball career are noteworthy. A former New Hampshire High School Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award recipient, Healey was the captain and point guard for the Harvard women’s basketball team, graduating in 1992 with a degree in Government. After playing two years of professional basketball in Austria, she attended Northeastern University School of Law.

Healey was a clerk for the Honorable Justice David Mazzone in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts and later was a litigator at the Hale and Dorr law firm. She also served as a special assistant district attorney for Middlesex County.

“My heart was in public interest law so I left Hale and Dorr to become chief of the civil rights division in the attorney general’s office in 2007,” Healey said in an interview this week. “I ended up overseeing about half of the office.”

During her tenure at the attorney general’s office, she successfully sued the Federal government, winning the first lawsuit against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

“It was the first case in the country to strike down that law – it went all the way to the Supreme Court,” she said.

Healey is proud of her record of fighting foreclosures and keeping families in their homes, and her work on women’s access to health care, anti-bullying laws, and workers’ and consumers’ protection, and accessibility for physically challenged individuals.

“My fights and my cases and my work – these were all cases and fights on behalf of people. That’s what it means to be attorney general. That’s what it means to lead in the attorney general’s office. You take on big issues and you fight for people most often in court to try to protect people. I think the job of the attorney general is to be the lawyer for the people, not for Beacon Hill.”

Healey said her campaign is going very well and she has received a number of significant endorsements from groups, unions, and elected officials.

“But at the end of the day, my support has come from the grassroots people in the state and across cities and towns,” said Healey. “My support is from people who want someone in the office who has experience and is ready to lead on Day 1.”

With the election set for Sept. 9, Healey says her support has been growing steadily as the campaign heads in to its final two weeks.

“I am really excited by this overwhelming show of support and this grassroots movement,” said Healey. This has been a campaign that’s just continued to build in energy and in excitement over the last few week and I’m really excited about where we’re at in this race. I love being out there with the people and I love campaigning.”